Thank you for posting that pic Scipio, it was one of the lionesses at Ntsemani dam this weekend?

WR hope you enjoy your stay in Punda, remember to drive the Mahonie loop first thing in the morning and again before gate closing time. While we were there we saw a beautiful leopard, but missed the lions every morning.

While we drove the Orpen-Satara road a couple of times this weekend, I noticed the beautifull ostrich near the Tamboti/Maroela turn-off, and then I remembered the pics we took in December off the Ostrich family. That specific weekend we saw so many small ostriches, it was unbelievable...

One of my favourite picnic spots is Mlondozi. Once we travelled on our way to Croc Bridge, and as we drove on the H10, I asked Scipio to take the road to Mlondozi. He didn’t really want to, but I insisted, as only I can, and with a sigh he took the road.

We could see the picnic site already, and about 800m before it on the uphill, I spotted a lion about 100m in the veld. I showed it to him, and he replied that if we go to the top, we could see where it will go. We proceeded and at the picnic site, while I quickly filled my flask with hot water (for my coffee addiction ), he and the site attended determined more or less where the lion would reach the main gravel road. I was told to hurry, and off we go again in search of the lion. He had a specific tree in mind, and as we approached the area, we started scanning. Nothing … he then decided to sit under the tree that he spotted from the picnic site and wait. Cars drove past us, and when asking what we were seeing, he replied, "we are waiting for a lion… " they thought most of the times it was funny, and then just drove on.

This one fellow and his wife in an Isuzu double cab, didn’t really think it was funny, and started to say something (I think) were supposed to be a nasty comment, when their eyes suddenly grew big. Next moment this beautiful specimen of a male lion walked up to the car and crossed the road in front of us. Words cannot describe the expression on their faces…. Scipio just said, “See, I told you …” and then we drove off.

The first spot

Coming out of the bushes

Stay away from my nest!! We watched in amazement how these little creatures, tried to get the snake away from the nest. They were truly very brave.

Most people will say when sitting at a lion sighting with one male lion can get pretty boring.... well in this case, this old guy entertained us for a while. He was trying to catch an irritating fly or something.

Good morning everyone. Sorry for my absence this last couple of days, there is always so much to do and so little time….We decided that our last evening of 2011 must be spend in Kruger in order for us to start the New Year in a place we love the most…

The biggest leopard I have ever seen in Kruger

Some little feathered ones

Couldn’t resist taking a pic of this mom and baby

A close-up

And something different….

Our first sighting on 1 January 2012

And the first sunrise

Think I fell in love with this little one that day

And so we started the new year in the place that gives us peace, a chance to build our strength for the year to come.

Hi everyone, thank you all for still reading my Trip Report. We took my son for his 16th birthday (Dewald341) to Kruger for the weekend, and had some great sightings. One of which was a Cheetah Kill.

Amazing, when we first realised that the mom is on the hunt, me and Scipio quickly switch places so he could take the pics while I was behind the steering wheel. It all happened so quickly, she was so fast, we couldn't keep up with the camera following her. But we saw everything and although we couldn't capture the actual kill on camera, it was amazing to watch and see what happened.

What also was really adorable, was the youngster she had with her. After the Impala was brought down, (we couldn't see whether she by that time actually killed it already) she called her young one and immediately he/she went into stalking mode and did the same thing the mom did. It was amazing to watch how she taught him/her. He stalked and chased right up to her. There was a lot of dust again and then they were out of sight behind some bushes. We left the scene with a WOW in our hearts.

Dewald asked that we must show him some wild dogs for his birthday, (which we didn't find as we were in the Skukuza area) but we showed him a cheetah kill instead.... needless to say, he didn't mind at all. He was a very happy chappy after that. He took some amazing pictures as well, which I will post as soon as the page turns again.

You see the reason for the name of my TR is when started planning the trip, Scipio told me I am not allowed to take all my bags of make-up, nail polish, hair dryer, etc to the park... and as I am a real "fashion queen", I went into total shock of how to survive 10 days without all my necesities...

In February we were a few times in Kruger. One of these times we took Scipio’s mother with us. We had a long day in leaving 00h00 in Johannesburg, driving to Phalaborwa, got Scipio’s LO at 06h00 and then entered through Phalaborwa gate. As we were supposed to drop the LO off again the following day, we once again decided to sleep in KNP rather than outside. Scipio also had to see someone the Sunday morning in Witrivier, so we got a camping space in Pretoriuskop. After driving the whole day to Pretoriuskop we finally arrived at about 17h30 and this is where I got a lot of respect for Scipio’s mom. She is 73 years old, were awake since midnight and driving with us for the past 18 hours and, yet as soon as we arrived at our camping spot, she got out of the car, and before we could stop her, she was pitching her tent by herself. She then got out her chair, took out a Black Label and sat watching us while we were still busy with our tent ... There were no WOW sightings that weekend, but what we saw were still special.

The Balule bridge a week after the floods

We couldn’t exit through Numbi or Phabeni gates due to the strikes outside KNP so we had to again drive all the way back up to Phalaborwa the next day. That evening at about 22h00 on the Ohrigstad – Lydenburg road we hit a pothole. There were already a car next to the road waiting for help because the lost both tyres on the left hand side, and according to them while they were there another car also lost a tyre. We were lucky to only have lost the back wheel and not both, as this was a Sunday evening… I got into the pothole to show how deep it was.

The next weekend we had the men’s cricket team practising in Gauteng and we didn’t go to Kruger. Scipio in the nets…